Having finaly worked out how to cut a flag from one place and paste it into another I notice that the edges of my flag image are very rough (fluffy). Is there a way to crisp up the edges please? (Example attached) I need to do these for four different countries.

Popped in just to add that selecting subjects effectively (the flag in this case) depends on their background and their shape.

In general, auto and semi-auto selection tools work best when the background is uniform (a solid color for example). The more busy the background, and the more complex the shape of the subject, the bigger the chance to get better results by manually selecting the subject (say for example with the pen tool).

It looks like in your original selection you also "grabbed" some of the background around the flag. It could help if you can share the image you extracted the flag from, and let us know which technique you used to isolate it. We may be able to advice for a better technique. It is usually better to have a clean selection from the start, instead of trying to fix it later in the destination image.

Hi Guys - Thank you for coming to my aid once again, I am grateful. Well! Far from cleaning up edges, since performing the desired action just once I have been unable to repeat it, I need to do the same with a Dutch flag. I have tried all of the instructions in the guide on pages 60,61 and 62 and also pages 181 and 182. I just get messages to say the clipboard contains no images or the whole picture is transferred including the chequered background. Regarding pages 181 and 182, I get as far as tracing round the flag but then cannot save it. Totally frustrated.

I have attached the German flag that needs cleaning up around the edges.

I'm not sure why you get white gibberish around the German flag. The pic you posted is already a .png image with transparent background, with very clean edges. I just tested it, and all I had to do was to copy and paste the flag as a new layer into the general scene picture. Crystal clear edges.

For the Dutch flag, things aren't that easy. That checkerboard behind it is not transparency. It is just a checkerboard embed into the picture. So you need to isolate the flag first, before copying it as a new layer in the scene picture. Its shape is simple enough, so in my opinion the best option to select it is by tracing it manually. Either using the Freehand selection tool, in Point to Point mode (Smart Edge, and Edge Seeker will not give you a smooth selection) or using the pen tool. In either case, check the Anti-Alias box, and try to stay just a little bit inside the edges when tracing (so you won't grab anything from the background).

Just wondering if you obtained that Dutch flag by doing a screen shot and saving that. It looks like the original may have been a png with transparency and saving the original image rather than doing a screenshot may have given you what you are after.migf1 has suggested a workaround but you may even save a bit more time with another method.

3. Choose the Magic Wand tool and make sure Contiguous is ticked and Mode =Add and Match Mode = Brightness. You can try it with no feather , or 1-2 pixels of feather. Promote the image (Background ) to a layer - (Right click the Background in the Layers Palette and choose Promote Background Layer.)4. Click in the checkerboard pattern to select all except the flag and then hit the delete key. This removes all outside the flag.5. Now zoom in a bit and use the magic wand on the black lines and hit delete again. You can use the Eyedropper tool to get the right shade of white and then tidy up the edges of the white area.

I think that saves having to trace all around the flag and saves a bit of time.